


Right Where You Left It

by rxcrcfllptrs



Series: Tony Stark is Peter Parker's Dad — The Playlist [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Android Peter Parker, Gen, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 16:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19113328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rxcrcfllptrs/pseuds/rxcrcfllptrs
Summary: Peter realizes some things when he's down for maintenance.(It's a "Peter calls Tony dad for the first time" fic with a few differences.)





	Right Where You Left It

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [more human than human is our motto](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19102990) by [thebetterbina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebetterbina/pseuds/thebetterbina). 



> Title is from Adventure Time's "[Everything Stays](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu_oJR2psGY)".

He's in maintenance again.

Peter looks around, the world sluggish as it chases its own afterimage. Sound passes through as though his audio receptors are covered in cotton. He blinks. The world blurs together, just a little.

He closes his eyes and sighs, a tic he's picked up from Pepper. She takes a moment to herself, just a moment, in those sighs. He opens his eyes again and someone moves into view. They're saying something to him, but he has to resort to visual cues to hear. "Hey Pete, gave us a scare there, didn't you?"

He tilts his head, facial recognition module only performing at 25%. It takes him a moment.

Disheveled, curly hair. A manicured beard and goatee, stains of a currently unidentifiable substance in some spots. Kind brown eyes, bloodshot. Forehead wrinkles and crow's feet embedded on tan skin. _Facial features match with STARK, Anthony Edward with a 99.98% similarity margin_. Peter smiles in recognition. His mouth falls open and garbled audio filters out, Tony rushes to close it with his free hand.

He looks at Peter with that same dogged determination that he does when solving clean energy equations, Iron Man schematics, defunct encryption languages from the Cold War. "We'll have to fix that, too." He frowns slightly.

 

* * *

 

Peter tries to remember what happened. Before he was found and was situated in the workshop for deep maintenance. His nose crinkles and his eyes narrow. Tony takes one look at him and shakes his head, a slight smile on his face as he turns back to the monitors.

Strangely enough, Peter doesn't manage to recall anything before maintenance. Like a chunk of his memory disappeared from just before he left the tower, to now. He would be unnerved if he didn't feel so... _out of body_ right now. He huffs as though he's just made a joke. Him, an android whose entire consciousness and personality is in a hard drive. Him, who has in fact seen a backup of that hard drive ages ago. He can only be so out of body as a... as a...

 

[02:15:33] **7vdjX2AES** : Try not to think yourself too hard into a shutdown, bud.

 

Peter startles, realizing that he is indeed taking up more resources to recall information than normal. He wrenches his eyes shut, determined to keep his internal temperature at manageable levels.

 

[02:15:41] **7vdjX2AES** : I know you're normally offline when we do maintenance, but we need to keep you online just this once.

[02:16:03] **7vdjX2AES** : Just give me a bit more time, okay?

[02:16:06] **PETER** : OK

 

For a moment — or for a long time, his timekeeping module is fuzzing out — Peter lets himself float. He looks up and around as more of the world pieces back together in his memory bank. There's the elevator leading up to the main floors, the grey walls, more machines and contraptions used for multiple world-shaking top-secret projects, the bots' charging stations... The path all leads back to the human behind it all.

Peter leans back on his chair and closes his eyes.

 

 _STARK, Anthony Edward_  
CTO, Stark Industries | 29 May 1970  
RELATION: Creator

 

He thinks about that word. Creator. Rolls it back and forth in his brain. Multiple dictionary definitions and quotes appear in his digital interface.

 

* * *

 

— _one that creates usually by bringing something new or original into being—  
_

 

__—_ "A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity or god responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology." _—__

 

_—a person or thing that creates—_

_—"I think even if you don’t believe in the idea of God, you can still consider the idea of vibration, energy and frequency, and how our minds create for us. The way it’s made the most sense to me so far is that how did we get here from where we were a year ago? We thought up what we should do next, and we went for it."—_

 

* * *

 

 

_"PETER!"_

He's being shaken, and he wakes back to several internal notifications and a panicked face in front of him. His vision focuses and defocuses, recalibrating after he was nearly lost to the vortex of information and ideas. Tony breathes like he's drowning, eyes flickering to multiple angles as he examines Peter.

"We nearly lost you there," Tony murmurs, more to himself than anything. _AUDIO MODULE: 87% RESTORED_. "What did I say about using up too much processing power during maintenance?"

A ping. 'Try not to think yourself too hard into a shutdown, bud.' pops up on the messaging program in one of the monitors. Tony shakes his head as Peter gives him a dimpled grin. "Don't push it, Skynet," he runs his hand through Peter's scalp, artificial hair curling around his fingers. Peter notes it as another comforting gesture for Tony. When the once-over is complete, Tony returns to his station to keep working.

Peter's head lolls to the side, actively makes an effort to follow Tony's orders this time.

His gaze follows one of the bots, DUM-E, whirring around with a wrench to keep itself amused. "Don't go throwing that on my equipment, DUM-E!" he hears Tony chastise. "One-way donation to a community college, don't you test me!"

 _Days since Tony Stark has threatened to donate a bot or AI to SHIELD, a community college, or similar location: 0._ A sad whirring sound conveys all that DUM-E needs to say.

The corner of Peter's mouth upturns. He realizes something, then and there.

Tony cares. He  _cares_. About DUM-E, about Butterfingers, about U, about JARVIS and FRIDAY and JOCASTA and—

And Peter.

He cares about Peter. He's not a distant creator leaving their creation to fend for themself in an unforgiving landscape. Tony brings him in for regular maintenance, makes a point to let him visit the R&D labs, to talk to _POTTS, Virginia, RHODES, James,_ and  _HOGAN, Harold_  to make sure he was able to communicate with someone that didn't understand binary. He squeezed Peter's hand as a gesture of comfort when the interviewer came around to administer the Turing test.

Peter makes a decision, then and there.

 

* * *

 

 _STARK, Anthony Edward_  
CTO, Stark Industries | 29 May 1970  
RELATION: Father

**Author's Note:**

> Tony startles when the screen with Peter's internal processes pings with a [ **MAJOR DATABASE CHANGE** ] alert. He looks over at Peter, who has his eyes closed but smiling. His chest is still going up and down to simulate breathing. Tony scrambles for his phone to send this to his best friends.
> 
>  **Tony Stank:** [NewUnitDesignation.jpg]
> 
>  **Tony Stank:** well, shit
> 
>  **Honeybear:** [[ItsABoy.jpg](https://images.esellerpro.com/3274/I/126/87/ESB143.jpg)]
> 
>  **Pepper:** You can't say I didn't tell you so


End file.
